Hello!
I am the mother of a 31 year old son, who was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis when he was 2 years old. I knew as soon as he was born that something was not right. His stomach was leaning to one side, and was larger than normal. But when I mentioned it to doctors and nurses they just laughed at me and said that he was perfectly normal. I had this nagging feeling all along, and when he started to walk at 10 months it was very obvious that he leaned. However, several doctors kept telling me that his hips would adjust by the time he was four. No one took me seriously. When Daniel was two, I happend to mention my deep concern to a friend of a friend who got in touch with the Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon, and within two weeks my son was diagnosed by specialists. Now the long journey started.
First it was a spinal fusion, and a brace for a long time. Later he underwent surgerys, halotractions, a harrington rod, braces and body casts. Needless to say, he went through a lot, but he was allways a trooper. I, as his mother was aware of that he would encounter a lot of problems in his teens, as his body is very deformed, and your apparance is important at that age. There was never an issue being made of that, but I knew it would happen. However, how could I put myself in the position of a 15 year old boy? When Danny was eighteen, he got involved with heavy drugs. Later he became a heroin addict. Fortunately he has kicked the habit with a lot of trials and errors. We know that there is a lot of research being done in the field of scoliosis, and hope that something can be done to help my son to improve his physical apparance as well as coping with the discomfort. He told me he is willing to go through anything. We were told, when he was twelve that there was an operation that could straighten him, but the risks were to big for me to decide. Now, he has decided for himself, and I will do anything to help him. I am sorry this posting became so long, but is there anyone out there who know of any specialists that could help. I am so glad to have found this site, and thank's for listening/reading.
Christina
I am the mother of a 31 year old son, who was diagnosed with congenital scoliosis when he was 2 years old. I knew as soon as he was born that something was not right. His stomach was leaning to one side, and was larger than normal. But when I mentioned it to doctors and nurses they just laughed at me and said that he was perfectly normal. I had this nagging feeling all along, and when he started to walk at 10 months it was very obvious that he leaned. However, several doctors kept telling me that his hips would adjust by the time he was four. No one took me seriously. When Daniel was two, I happend to mention my deep concern to a friend of a friend who got in touch with the Shriners Hospital in Portland, Oregon, and within two weeks my son was diagnosed by specialists. Now the long journey started.
First it was a spinal fusion, and a brace for a long time. Later he underwent surgerys, halotractions, a harrington rod, braces and body casts. Needless to say, he went through a lot, but he was allways a trooper. I, as his mother was aware of that he would encounter a lot of problems in his teens, as his body is very deformed, and your apparance is important at that age. There was never an issue being made of that, but I knew it would happen. However, how could I put myself in the position of a 15 year old boy? When Danny was eighteen, he got involved with heavy drugs. Later he became a heroin addict. Fortunately he has kicked the habit with a lot of trials and errors. We know that there is a lot of research being done in the field of scoliosis, and hope that something can be done to help my son to improve his physical apparance as well as coping with the discomfort. He told me he is willing to go through anything. We were told, when he was twelve that there was an operation that could straighten him, but the risks were to big for me to decide. Now, he has decided for himself, and I will do anything to help him. I am sorry this posting became so long, but is there anyone out there who know of any specialists that could help. I am so glad to have found this site, and thank's for listening/reading.
Christina
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